This is my old development blog for my project Cube World.
There is now an official site: picroma.com.
The game is still in development and not available for download. Be careful of fake downloads.

2012/12/04

Cube World AI

I've been working on the artificial intelligence of Cube World's NPCs and monsters. I've added pathfinding and some behavior features to the AI. The pathfinding is based on the A* algorithm, with some additional features like climbing and arbititrarily sized bounding boxes for creatures and obstacles. NPCs like villagers use it to find their way to various places in the city. Enemies use it to follow the player even to the most unreachable locations.

Below are a few screenshots to demonstrate the AI. The small red and yellow cubes are just for visualization purposes and won't be visible in the final game.

Let's spend the day with Alerick, a nice NPC living in this house in Tririon City.

Looks like he is still sleeping.

Ah, now he's awake. Let's see where he's going...

As mentioned above, the red dots are just for visualization of the path. The path is computed and updated on the fly while the NPC is walking. Obstacles like street lights are avoided.

Seems like Alerick is chilling in the park.

Now he's going to the armor shop...

Looks like he wants to go to the market next.

Where is he going?

Ah, to the item shop. :)

Looks like Alerick wants to hang out in the park again...

He just entered this inn.

His NPC friends are here, too.

Seems like he has enough of them. :) He's choosing a different seat.

Maybe he wants to tell me something in confidence. :)

Ok, time to get out of here.

He's going to the weapon shop.

Maybe I should buy some new weapons, too.

Later, in the evening...

It's time to go home.

Looks like Alerick is tired. His wife is already sleeping.

Good night!

In the next morning...

Let me show you the monster AI.

This plant creature is following me everywhere.

It can even climb up here.

Let's go to that castle.

As a rogue I can become stealthy. It works best in the shadow. The darker it is the faster I can become stealthy. When the stealth bar is full, enemies can't see me. Also my spirit increases so I can open the fight with a special attack.

Dungeon enemies are standing together in groups. If one of them sees me, the whole group will attack me.

There are also patrols like this Ogre. He is stronger than normal enemies.

He is patrolling from corner to corner.

It's better to eliminate the groups without the patrol...

... which is the specialty of an assassin. :)

Sometimes it's useful to pull groups around corners, e.g. when some of them are attacking from range.

That's all I have to show for now. I'm currently working on quests and the homepage. Maybe I'm gonna make a new video when the new quests are working.

My God, Wollay, that is some great work! I am looking forward to playing the outcome of your hard work!

To others concerning release: Imagine handling Graphics, Sound, Design, and Coding by yourself! It's not easy - I've tried it myself. The coding alone can be such a headache if you lose where you are in the program, or make some small syntax error, or the dreaded logic error which can set you back HOURS while you look for that one wrong number operator....

Shit... judging by the last comment it looks like its gunna be couple more months till its released ... years even... i swear in a tweet u put u were planning on releasing it last 2012... Gayyy.... but gj so far anyway, i just want a beta out so we can atleast have a taste of it and have our stress relieved from waiting lol

are there other city's than human city's it looks awesome orc city's would be awesome in forests and stuff and skeleton city's close to volcanic ground :D love it i have been following you since the beginning before the new engine *drool* the wait is totaly worth it keep doing a greate job

Hey Wollay, awesome game, but i think you sohuld decide a name as soon as possible and add it on steam greenlight! I am sure that adding it on steam will be much mnore efficient than just selling it when it´s done.(Add on steam now to guarante votes and make people know about this awwsome game)

I think a closed BETA/ALPHA will be beneficial to both you, wollay, and us, the expectors. It will grant you some money as a keep-it-up and it will allow us the pleasure of testing it out. And as in closed BETA/ALPHA, i mean paying slightly more (like 5-10$ more than the expected full release will cost) and they will receive beta/alpha play rights and the full game when it releases. (to prevent piraters from playing beta, make a login system similar to minecraft's, where you can download the game for free, but to play it you need a premium account)

again i hate to be one of those people but this will definatly raise quite the developers fund, wollay (atleast from me!)

Well, becoming stealthy is a grate featur for assassins so It would be lots of fun to play with. I gotta ask... Is becoming stealthy their passive? And if yes, are you gonna add more fun passives to the other 3 classess?

This is incredible. I have been following this game since it's beginning. I still remember when you added that old man with a quest. I seriously hope that this game develops much, much more. I've been looking forward to playing it for years it seems. This is really good work, and I really look forward to playing this some day.

I love it! keep up the good work Wollay!, I like the AI for both npcs and mobs. Especially the mobs how they patrol around or just gather in groups, makes it seem more realistic then just a pre-set path. The npcs are good too, how they interact with chairs, benches, etc. Big ups!

I completely agree with you, I wish Wollay would replyto you and say his opinion, but sdadly, he didnt.I love the look of the game its absolutely amazing :D Cant wait for it, buth then again, take your time with the full release, (not with the closed alpha though! ;)Also! A few suggestions to put into the game, Mostly little things.Armor for pets! and for the slime, make the "armor" actualy bones that the slime absorbs, also to make the slime translucent. (only slightly)Also, when you are editing, (applying spirit cubes) to the bow, have an option to edit the arrow aswell, unless the game mechanic make arrows a seperate item.Also, not sure if you are planning this, but make the diffrent elements do something. for example, the cold spirit cubes would have a chance to slow down nemies when shot, like a 20% chance, at high level, And the fire spirit cubes would allow for a chance to light aflame, etc.If the previous suggestion would be put in, then antoher wold be to make the elements have opposites, like in magicka. for example if you were on fire getting shot by a cold arrow or jumping into water would slow you down.Another suggestion: To make passive animals that you kill for meat, and maybe some of the animals would be passive untill attacked, then they would turn aggressive.

Hello wollay, optimal update cube world. congratulations .. Wollay I have many ideas for you to implement in cubeworld doubts and also if you want to add me on Skype will be very happy indeed, Skype: Creeper_ssss

I was just thinking: Alerick knows the town a bit too well. It makes sense if he's lived there all his life, but I've lived in a relatively small town for years, and I still don't know where everything is. Would there be a way for NPCs to get lost, or maybe forget where they are going, or the location is at? Maybe it's a place they've never been, and they have to ask someone - or maybe they're stubborn and try to find out on their own?

The funny thing is, that when I used to play Minecraft, I'd think of all these little ideas that I'd believe would make the game much cooler, but every time you update this blog and show off another amazing feature you've added, my imaginative mind cannot think of a single thing that could make it better. You're not just a great programmer and artist, you're a frikin genius!

Im actually designing my own game by myself and to say coding isnt hard for me i enjoy it haha seems ridiculous but its fun ^.^ im making an MMORPGFPS my self and i find the hardest thing to be is animation and modeling. sound is easy and fun to like a walnut on a football helmet makes an excellent heavy armored boot sound ^.^ i give wollay a LOT of credit building a video game by your self is hard and a pain in the booty and i am certinally looking forward to cube world ^.^

you should have an option to turn on the red markers showing us where the people would go, but only for non hostile mobs incase we want to run there quicker and meet them there or if we loose them we can follow their path,

Looks so awesome!!! been following you for while and am so happy with the progress! You are doing a great job! cant wait to try it out, i can already tell im going to love this game, IT PERFECT! keep up the great work and don't ever lose enthusiasm on the projects you are working on! -thanks, Jacob

I'll be honest, throughout the last several months i was one of the people who was saying "release it release it release it." But after seeing the amount of progress Wolfram keeps making and the depth that this game is starting to get into, I think he is right to take his time to fine tune and perfect it. What an awesome work of art this is turning out to be, just incredible.

This is great so far! But i noticed, isn't there any behavior of the NPC that is affected by the player? i mean you aren't really a ghost walking around XDThough i assume you could make breaks in the patterns to make them interact with you,.

Can I pre-purchase this game? I've been interested for a while now and don't see any chance that interest will wane. I'd prefer to buy it now, forget about it and be pleasantly surprised on release, whenever that may be.

Hey Wollay, awesome game, but i think you sohuld decide a name as soon as possible and add it on steam greenlight! I am sure that adding it on steam will be much mnore efficient than just selling it when it´s done.(Add on steam now to guarante votes and make people know about this awwsome game)

If any enemy is chasing the player -In this case, a rogue- and the player stands around a corner, do they have multiple reactions?I.E.1)It looks around the corner and continues the chase.2)It looks around the corner and investigates the remaining scene if the player is missing, then returns.3) If the player is stealthed, it continues the chase and the player can continue where they left off without any chase until the enemy realizes the player is most likely not where they last saw them running off to.

everything seems to be perfect <3 I hope for airships and just alot stuff for inventory, it would be cool if you were able to fly around, and stuff would be great like just random stuff :D everyone likes random >:)

Are you an idiot. why would you want to add it on steam. It would be much better just to have your own separate game, and not have to go through the steam loading screen to get to the game itself. soo it better not be on steam

I agree with Logan Solomon but I just wish that there was a sort of testing alpha so I could be a part of this myself instead of waiting for updates, I could maybe help Wollay find bugs and other problems with the game. Even though I doubt it has much :).

The game is looking fantastic Wollay, i can't wait to play it (i am a bit inpatient lol). I was wondering if it would be possible if you release some demo or alpha before Christmas lol. I have been following the game for about 1 year, i watch the blog everyday to check for updates.

It looks like an idiot is you.. Almost every gamer have steam account nowadays, and it is powerfull AD tool for games like this, and nothing stops wollay from selling standalone and steam versions seperatly. Also I think desura is good variant too, it have very big number of indie games like this.

Still looking spectacular. It's nice to see little things in the new screen shots like the falling cube leaves :P Would it be too complicated to make npc's travel between other discovered towns and spend a day there from the inn or something? It would be interesting to find actual travel going on like that and have traveling markets that would carry exotic goods from a different climate or something.

I'm positive you know what you're doing and i'm glad that you're spending the time you need to develop the game. I'm certainly going to buy the game when it is released but my enthusiasm has lost a little steam and I think a number of others feel the same way.

hey wollay will you mite add a type of like system for the NPCS, it could work maybe if you do more quests for a NPC the greater the reward or maybe if you offend a NPC they'll ignore you and if you mess with the whole town you'll be kicked out or something. Also youve done we'll with this game

Why can't he at least just give us some sort of estimated release date? it doesn't even have to be specific just anything so we at least have an idea. And if he changes it later on that's fine too but man it's just so annoying keeping us completely in the dark not knowing whether this is going to be released tomorrow or in 3 years. Just something like "i think the game is --% complete, i have __ more things i want to work on, and i have a ___ more weeks/months of work as a rough estimate, i might need more or less so don't complain if it's not in that time frame.."

its a good point for realism. Although those towns didn't look very large, more like a village even. In that case it would make sense but I'd imagine maybe he could make it so npcs just take breaks on benches and things maybe walk an area a little if they scan over a certain number of other buildings around them. It might at least make the illusion in that case. Seeing as they already take breaks like this he could just turn up the priority on them after a certain number of buildings and maybe make a maximum priority too so a massive village wouldnt have everyone running around blindly. Thats just logic stuff though. I'm sure he could figure it out if he wanted to add it.

Life is not very simply estimated, and he isn't doing this as a professional game developer. He obviously isn't getting money from cube world yet so this has to be on the side of his life, so he would not want to give words on when it comes if he can't give a reliable enough answer. It's apparent he's probably a rather intelligent person, and seemingly honest as well. I can't imagine why he Would try and give a release date yet. Even if it is close, he probably just doesn't want to say something he really can't back up in case things are coming up in his life. It just wouldn't be very fair to us if he gave a date and then couldn't support it.

for me it's .dk but that's because i live in Denmark whenever you type: wollay.blogspot.com it "sends" you to the country your from e.g. your from France and you type wollay.blogspot.com and you come to wollay.blogspot.fr got it? :P

I don't know how much longer I can wait for Cube World.I have known about Cube World for 11 months know and have gone over your whole blog 8 times now, starting from yesterday. The music in the Cube World video's is my favourite music EVER and I hope that's the music in the game. I'm going to print out some cube world pictures, laminate them and put them all over my room. From your #1 BIGGEST FAN! ~Crazywatermelon

@Crazywatermelon Then he might have 2 #1-Fans xDCant wait! Would pay evrything for a 1day Pre alpha trial *_______*I already Made a big ass Poster of wollay pwning some dinosaurs in One of the gameplay videos xDOMG it has to come out at least Q1 2013!!

i bet you and your friends are having so much fun with this that you cant ever get any major headway on this game, witch really sucks. i would love to play this game but after visiting your blog for a year and a half now im starting to ask myself, would i really pay for this game? you really need to do one of three things:

1- Buckle down and get to work and get this sh*t done before the whole "voxel" scene is gone.

2- Let some people help you develop. it really would speed things up. and take strain off you.

3- Give up on "Cube World" or whatever your going to call it. because the longer you wait the more possible sales are flying out the window. i know i have found myself at a point where i feel like your just have this website to get attention. like hey guys look at this awesome toy i got. you can only look at it until im done playing with it. and then only if i feel like it will i let you play with it. Well i say no more!!!!!

Wollay.. you can take cube world and shove it up your egotistical @$$!!!

I DONT WANT TO PLAY ANYMORE YOU JERK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i dont care if this post gets deleted i really just hope wollay reads this.

Look man, Wollay would not be making this game if he didn't want people to play it. He wants to see this game be released and be successful just as much as anyone else. But if he releases it unfinished he knows that people will get bored quickly. And to be fair he has not been working on it for that long of a time, it's just that he has been keeping his fans up to date on it from the very beginning that it seems like it takes forever. Making a game is not easy, especially making one like this. Just stay positive and give him encouragement, he needs all the support he can get and the more we give him the faster he will release it and the better of a game it will be.

Hey Wollay, awesome game, but i think you sohuld decide a name as soon as possible and add it on steam greenlight! I am sure that adding it on steam will be much mnore efficient than just selling it when it´s done.(Add on steam now to guarante votes and make people know about this awwsome game)

1. You realese it in early 2013 and you become very, very rich2.you release it later, and you've thrown most of your money away, because nobody likes it anymore and lost interest3.you release it way later, and people will either love it again or 4.people.hate on it because voxel based games lost poplarity

IM DIEING, I DONT CARE IF ITS $100 OR EVEN $1000, JUST REALEASE IT ALREADY SO I MAY PLAY, BETA WOULD BE AMAZING TOO

Guys i know everyone wants this game to be released and so do i but wollay if you keep on updating the game and not releasing it new technology will come out which can code the game better and stuff so you will think well it will only be another month it couldnt hurt then more and more technology comes out and you keep updating with the technology not only would you be broke from the technology but we would get sick of it im not trying to discriminate against wollay im just giving my opinion stay awesome everryone :)

I can see that your anticipation has already exceeded you lack of common sense and knowledge. You're an idiot. I shouldn't have to explain why, but here's a few reasons. First of all, "Voxel scene"? The fuck? Genres don't work like fads. Of course you get companies releasing a lot of genres like space simulators and zombie games at certain points because a game of that genre does well, but the players don't buy things because they are 'in' they buy things because they look entertaining to that person, and the person likes that kind of game. You make it sound like a year and a half is a long time to work on a game. In fact, it's not. Not even for a full company. It's actually a very short time to work on a game, especially when it's ONE PERSON. Yes, he could go out and hire people to help him, but sometimes it's best not too. Have you ever asked someone to do something and they go and get it wrong? Or they go and get it right, but in the wrong way? Well that's why! He wants his game to be as fitting to the word 'perfect' as it can be. Take a step back, and look at it as a full game. Like it was going to be released tomorrow. There is no way near enough content. He has the stuff that gets you interested, but not the stuff that keeps you playing. If he was to release it now, people will play, get bored and give terrible reviews and feedback. People who haven't yet played it then won't get it because they would think that it will be bad. So when it did get better, they won't try it because they would think it sucks. The most he has got so far that would keep someone playing are small randomly generated quests which are good, but they're only small and can get tedious. Very few devs release alphas this early on in development.Wollay, keep up the good work. Also, add bears. (I like bears (Preferably as mounts))

Hey Wollay, awesome game, but i think you sohuld decide a name as soon as possible and add it on steam greenlight! I am sure that adding it on steam will be much mnore efficient than just selling it when it´s done.(Add on steam now to guarante votes and make people know about this awwsome game)

Hey Wollay, awesome game, but i think you sohuld decide a name as soon as possible and add it on steam greenlight! I am sure that adding it on steam will be much mnore efficient than just selling it when it´s done.(Add on steam now to guarante votes and make people know about this awwsome game)

Wonder if there will ever be a modding scene for this game.... hmm anyways i just cant wait for the game to be released, maybe on Christmas or before Christmas?but no rush it would be better if you took your time. either way this game looks like it will be insanely addicting keep it up and good job for you have made so far.

You were completely right about fake downloads just showing you for shit's and giggles--------> http://www.skidrowgaming.com/cube-world-full-game-for-pc-linux-mac/---------> also addressing the dumb people, don't download this you dumb people!... unless curiosity gets the best of you OK just kidding

Not to mention, this is just a development blog, just so we can keep up on what Wollay's working on. If he's almost done he'll tell us! BTW if you somehow end up reading this Wollay, add bears AND foxes as mounts!

To tell you the truth, that might be little bit of wasted effort. I hope I don't like I'm offending your idea or anything, but if you went inside an INN and looked at the NPCs, could you honestly tell if they lived there or not? Now if you could talk to them about their background, then your idea is kick-butt! Otherwise, I think Wollay has more important things to consider.

Well, I think if he added NPCs getting lost, it might be mistaken as a bug! Think of the villagers of minecraft, sometimes you just have to wonder, "WTF is he doing?". I do agree that the NPCs should be able to talk to eachother as they're walking through the street. Maybe they'd make simple hand gestures as if their gossiping or exchanging experiences. Maybe they could laugh or do things like that, maybe even trip and fall on their face occasionally! :)

About me & Contact

This is my development blog for Cube World and Plasma. If you have any questions, send me an email: wollay@picroma.com
Please understand that I can't answer all emails, especially with questions answered in the FAQ. :)